A group of wild-swimmers want answers as to why there have been so many sewage discharge alerts in 2023.
The Cleveleys Dippers say are getting conflicting messages about whether it's safe to swim in the Fylde Coast sea, and it's impossible to plan their sessions in advance.
The Cleveleys Dippers say are getting conflicting messages about whether it's safe to swim in the Fylde Coast sea, and it's impossible to plan their sessions in advance.
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00:00 We've seen a lot of dead birds washed up, some of our friends from along the Fylde coast
00:06 have seen actual raw sewage being washed up and I know that the litter pickers that regularly
00:11 come along Rossell and Cleveland, they've been picking up a lot more sanitary items.
00:16 On an app that we use called the Safer Seas and Rivers app, it's really ramped up this
00:20 year in terms of pollution risk alerts, discharges from the storm overflows and then obviously
00:26 we also had the incident at Fleetwood with the broken pipe. It makes me feel really sad
00:32 and also quite upset that the council isn't doing more to tell people to spread the news,
00:38 even when things were really really bad with the burst pipe up at Fleetwood, there were A4 signs
00:44 that were bent around poles and you couldn't really see what they were and they were next
00:48 to signs that are probably A1 that say this is a bathing beach. You know a lot of our group
00:56 have had really a lot poorer mental health since we've not been able to come in. It's been six
01:03 weeks now since the burst pipe and as Caroline said a few of us did go in at Fleetwood last week
01:10 which was lovely and I really felt it was like a boost to be able to get back in the sea and I
01:15 thought oh that's it, it's over and it's great and then of course the following day we were back
01:20 to square one again and it is very confusing and as Caroline says really we would just like some
01:27 answers. We're getting a lot of conflicting advice from different organisations so the YMCA for
01:34 example who commission the lifeguards, then you've got the Environment Agency, then you've got the
01:39 council and depending which website you go on or who you speak to you get different information
01:44 about whether it's safe to swim or not. The ideal outcome would be for us to start getting some
01:51 answers from people within the council and the MPs who can actually start to help us coordinate
02:01 a much bigger effort to stop this being an ongoing problem.